Tunbridge Wells Borough Council (TWBC) has released a draft of its Pre-Submission Local Plan (PSLP), which, if signed off by three Council committees between January 11th and February 3rd, is due to be put out for consultation in March/April (known as Regulation 19). The documents have been released as part of a pack of agenda papers for the first council meeting on January 11th – Planning and Transportation Cabinet Advisory Board. This document has not been formally published and may still be amended before it is finalised.
You can access the files here, but please note that the main document – Agenda reports pack – is a large file at 54Mb.
We are extremely disappointed to see that the PSLP still includes both the major developments proposed for Capel, despite the community’s massive rejection at the previous consultation, which the Council themselves said was an unprecedented response.
We will be reviewing the documents over the coming weeks. As with the last consultation, we will prepare resources and guidance to help our supporters make effective representations at this second consultation.
We will also be commissioning our expert legal and planning advisers to carry out a detailed, professional analysis of the revised plans for Tudeley and East Capel and to prepare our arguments for the Regulation 19 consultation and beyond.
We can do this thanks to our very generous community and supporters, and we would like to thank you all once again, particularly given the challenging period we have all been facing. As a result of direct donations, tea sales, Andrew Stanley’s summer walk and other activities, Save Capel, with support from Capel Parish Council and Capel Green Belt Protection Society, has substantial funds available to support this fight.
We are also still pursuing the replacement of the unsustainable Tudeley development with the alternative proposal for Castle Hill, which TWBC still has within its gift to do if it chooses the better option. To that end members of Save Capel and Castle Hill Developments are meeting with the Council’s head of planning and chief executive on Friday, January 8th – which we will report back on.
And so while we had hoped that the community would have been listened to and that this new iteration of the local plan would have reflected our concerns, with your support, we will continue to fight these unsustainable, unwanted plans every step of the way.
